屠杀场 第2部分：未选之路
屠杀场 第2部分：未选之路//Slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken。 待编译…… The mystery of the Lost Light's disappearance is solved, beginning a race against time to shut down the quantum engines and put things right. 摘要 As Megatron lifts the unconscious Rewind out of the Magnus Armor and lays him down, the little 'bot slowly awakens. Skids tries to make sure he's okay and talks him through the surprising sights that greet him—an Autobot Megatron, a living Nightbeat, and Nautica being female—but Nightbeat butts in, desperate to find out what happened on the ship. The detective is fascinated by their recent discoveries, and a closer examination of the poster for "Information Creep" has revealed its release date to have been only a weeks after the ship's original launch, all standing in contradiction to the history they know—but Rewind dissolves into whimpering, able to give no verbal answer, instead offering up a data slug to the detective. Meanwhile, across the room, Nautica observes the quantum engines' quantum drums floating in the web of quantum foam, prompting Riptide to make fun of her by suggesting her profession just involves putting "quantum" in front of other words. She responds with a (failed) joke about the way all quantum objects exist in two superpositioned states—which gives her a sudden realization that explains everything. She presents her theory to the crew: that upon launch, the malfunction of the Lost Light's quantum engines caused the ship to undergo a quantum duplication, yielding an exact copy, just as valid as the original, which materialized in the region of the space the ship was supposed to appear in, rather than jumping to the random planet that "their" Lost Light did. Nightbeat confirms her theory is correct with the data provided by Rewind, which reveals that the Rodimus they found in the coffin perished during the Sparkeater fiasco when his head was phased inside the engines instead of just his arms. Ultra Magnus subsequently took command, while Rodimus was interred by Drift; the coffin proceeded to fall from the ship when it broke up following the Decepticon Justice Division's attack—brought on, Rewind claims, by the fact that someone onboard deliberately deactivated Overlord's cell, allowing the DJD to detect his signal. Rewind explains that he was forced to film the villains' murder spree because they promised to let Chromedome live if he did so, but for added psychological torture, they then tried to force the mnemosurgeon to wipe his own memories of Rewind, killing him with his own finger-needles when he refused. Riptide brings Rewind's grim tale to an end by pointing out that the quantum foam floating outside is beginning to spread; Nautica realizes that it could potentially destroy Ofsted XVII down below by causing a chain reaction in the thinned-out space-time of the region and proposes shutting down the quantum engines entirely, which should also theoretically erase the "duplicate" Lost Light and reinstate their own. Megatron has no interest in risking his own life for a planet of non-Cybertronians, but Skids makes it clear it's not a choice: he is an Autobot now, and for that to mean something, Megatron must put his life on the line for others. Unfortunately, the quantum foam is meshed around the drums so tight that a 'bot of Megatron's size cannot make it through; Rewind volunteers, but as both drums must be deactivated simultaneously, a second small 'bot is needed. Skids recalls Brainstorm's mass-displacement gun, capable of shrinking someone for the job, so the group heads for his lab to see if the "duplicate" Brainstorm invented the weapon. While searching the wrecked lab, Nightbeat and Nautica discuss the minutiae of the quantum duplication process, realizing that the Rewind "data ghost" and his altered message to Chromedome were the result of quantum "cross-contamination", and concluding that the erasure of their Lost Light was triggered when it came into proximity with Rodimus's coffin, making the paradox too blatant for the universe to continue "ignoring". Their conversation is brought to a shuddering halt when they lift a piece of rubble and reveal Brainstorm's body underneath... a discovery made all the more horrifying when Nightbeat picks up Brainstorm's disconnected faceplate, lying on the floor beside him, and uncovers a Decepticon insignia painted inside it. The ghastly realization that Brainstorm—and by extension, their Brainstorm—was the Decepticon mole who deactivated Overlord's cell has to be tabled by the crew in the face of greater concerns, and when it becomes apparent that the mass-displacement gun is not there, Megatron finally offers up a solution: he can use his own mass displacement powers, added to his spark to enable his old handgun mode, to shrink himself down and join Rewind in shutting the engines down. A short time later, Rewind and the shrunken Megatron carefully make their way through the foam web, successfully reaching the quantum drums. As Nautica begins to walk them through the shutdown procedure, Rewind pauses, seeking belated confirmation of the fact that deactivating the drums will mean he and "his" Lost Light will cease to be. Nautica verifies this, and Rewind calmly resigns himself to this fact, given that his Chromedome is dead, leaving him with nothing to live for. He asks Megatron if the "other" Rewind and Chromedome are still strong, and after a moment of silence, Megatron tells him they are inseparable. Satisfied, Rewind throws the shutdown switch, and a wave of white light consumes everything. Epilogue 1 Time passes. The deactivation of the quantum engines proves successful: the alternate Lost Light vanishes, and crew members slowly start appearing aboard the Rodpod in reverse order. When Chromedome is returned, however, Skids thrusts a pair of magna-clamps into his hands and tells him to go onto the pod roof... because somehow, the alternate Rewind has survived, and is waiting for him. The two 'bots look at each other in silent shock; Chromedome sits down beside his "resurrected" lover, and after a wordless moment of staring out at the stars together, the two embrace. Back inside, meanwhile, Blaster reports that the Lost Light has also reappeared, and as a course is locked in, Megatron requests that he open a secure channel so that he can inform Rodimus about Brainstorm. Ravage points out that he is not likely to be welcomed by the crew, and offers to depart for Earth, but Megatron invites him to stay, asking if the horrors he has seen the DJD perpetrate are enough to make him question his dedication to the Decepticon cause. Nightbeat and Nautica wonder how Rewind could have survived; Nightbeat jokingly blames "the power of love"... though that doesn't explain how he has managed to keep ahold of the dead Brainstorm's briefcase... Epilogue 2 Back on the returned Lost Light, Brainstorm squeezes his way through the crowd of revellers at Swerve's, sitting down to next to Atomizer. Over Atomizer's protests, Brainstorm breaks the rules of the bar by undoing the clasps on his briefcase and opening it... and everyone in the bar except him collapses... 参考 1.TFWiki--Slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken Category:IDW难以置信期刊